Another Afar gile
 

A new Afar gile has arrived with a bone handle of a not quite classic shape, without a cone. The blade was a little disappointing, but considering the little money I paid, I'm pleased.

Hello Pertinax,

I really like your Afar gile, it shows a lot of use and a very nice patination and good preserved, I guess that you gave it some care.
A truly ethnographic knife for low money, congrats!:cool:

Regards,
Detlef

Hello Detlef

And this Afar gile has been in my collection for two years now

Regards, Yuri

Hello Juri,

Could it be that you bought it from me? ;)

Regards,
Detlef

Hello, your new gile is nice, some might say juice of Afarland... Isnt the handle made of wood ?

I really like your new gile Yuri. The blade may have been ground aggressively, but the fittings are very nice. Are you sure the hilt is bone? Is it possible that it may be some kind of horn?

No Detlef, I first bought the Gile without the sheath, it was in very bad condition. Spent a lot of time and got it in order. About a year later I managed to find a scabbard for it. This is the result of all my work.:п
Regards, Yuri

Hello Маrtin

No, it's definitely not a tree. Is this juice of Afarland?

Regards, Yuri

Thanks TVV

I began to carefully study the handle and now I’m not sure that it is bone. But I'm confused by the cracks on the back of the handle. Could such cracks appear on the horn handle? My knowledge is not enough.

Regards, Yuri

Pertinax, I can say with some confidence that the hilt in your first post is not bone. My guess is wood (or perhaps horn)--the grain/fibrous nature is quite pronounced. Perhaps others more familiar with horn in that area can give you a more specific answer.

Hi Yuri,

It looks very similar to one I sold via ebay some time ago.

Regards,
Detlef

Very nice Gile! It has some rustic charm, and the leatherworking near the mouth of the scabbard and the wire in the handle give it a lot of character

Hello Ian,

Looks like some sort of blonde horn to my eyes!

Regards,
Detlef

Hi Detlef,

I'm inclined to agree, although rhino or giraffe horn would be exceedingly uncommon on a gile. If it is either of those horns, the value of the knife increases considerably. The cracks seen at the butt end can be found on horn that has dried out, and then cleaved along longitudinal lines in its structure. The same is true for wood of course. I suspect the material needs some TLC with application of a light oil to improve its state of hydration, and perhaps close those cracks a bit.

Pertinax, if this is horn you have a valuable piece.

I believe we can see a knot from branch at the location indicated and that it is therefore wood

ML, you could be correct. Hard to say. What you have circled is a small hole in the hilt that is darker than the surrounding area. This looks like a fairly old and much used hilt, and I think it would take a careful direct inspection to know exactly what the hilt is made from. Maybe even a hot wire in a discreet area to see if it smelled like burning wood or hair.

Martin you're right.

I took a hot needle and conducted an experiment on the handle. To my regret it turned out to be a tree. How I wished it was a horn or a bone! But I wasn’t too upset, gile is very interesting and worthy. :(

Regards, Yuri

Yuri,You've got nice and typical gile.
From my point of view, what is valued in these objects is their originality, the fact that they bear signs of daily use, patina and at the same time preservation. They may not be very old, but they are real, genuine "artifacts". These "everyday use" objects age quickly and even acquire patina quickly in Africa. Also it is not easy to discern true age of gile - two versions, which already differ in the decoration on the handle due to changes in taste or availability of decorative materials, and between which there is e.g.a difference of perhaps twenty years, have almost the same patina. But that doesn't bother the gile. They are still in use, at least as part of the costume.

As for the material for the handle, I believe that the Afars and Issa and similar groups have always used wood for the handle. The exception to this are those large and considerably heavier knives with a rounded blade tip, similar to a gile, but which have a slightly different blade shape and different sheaths. In these, the handles are indeed mostly rhinoceros horn and often have a silver pommel. However, these have certainly not been made for somme time and are disproportionately rarer. The question, in my opinion, is whether these were the weapons actually used by the Afars ("Danakils"), because even in old photos from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the true Afar gile have a basically contemporary appearance. I think that these large knives with rhino handles may have been used by elders of some Oromo groups sharing an environment with the Afars, their neighbours. I'm afraid no one is able to satisfactorily explain this today.

Martin

Thank you Martin

Agree here with Martin, your new gile is a real beauty in view of an artefact which was long time in use.
I like your gile equal if the handle is from horn or from wood! ;):cool:

Yuri,

As others have stated, your gile is hardwood, probably the same type of wood as these Sudanese arm daggers where the wood has a pronounced grain structure. Horn ones are not very common. Here is a gile that is composed of such. It is somewhat older with metal alloy spacers and pommel cap. Apologies for the poor photo quality, these were taken a number of years ago now and I do not have the items on hand at the moment.

-Geoffrey

I would like to correct myself, I got carried away by what I personally call "classic afaraks".

There are, of course, other groups of purely Afar knives, which are also called gile, but they are shorter and often have a T-shaped handle. In these cases, the handle is often made of segments of horn and metal, it can also be only horn, or only aluminum or brass. These knives can be of medium size or even very small.

There is also a group of Afar like knives with bulbous pommel, which I believe belong to afarised Oromos from the north-eastern part of Ethiopia....

Let me apologize a lot for that my important omission. (this could be for longer discussion...)

Herewith I am attaching some (already older) ilustration pictures, also to the previously mentioned texts.

Thank you Geoffrey for your comment

Very nice Martin collection, congratulations!

Regards, Yuri

Yuri,
these are copies of photographs that are in a museum in Harar, Ethiopia. I'd say they're from, like, 1920s (?).

Best,
Martin

More photos from the Internet

Regards, Yuri